Conventional surveillance systems typically implement multiple cameras to monitor a site. The systems are often archived to tape or other storage media for future reference. Archiving typically uses a continuous operation and generates large amounts of video data. Storing, monitoring, retrieving, and analyzing such large volumes of stored video data presents challenges to conventional storage systems. Video compression, and more specifically motion-compensated video compression, such as the system described in co-pending application U.S. Ser. No. 10/389,314, entitled MULTI-CHANNEL VIDEO COMPRESSION SYSTEM, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, may be used to reduce the processing overhead of video monitoring systems.
It would be desirable to implement image processing functions to improve the volume of storage, accuracy of monitoring, and/or ease of retrieval and analysis of archived video content.